Kelly L. Stone

A special thank you to Kelly L. Stone who donated a copy of her well written book, Living Write, to Pamela Hill, winner of the August MAC. Kelly's book is chock-a-block full of wonderful, practical and off-beat advice for writers. It's a book every writer should read to get their creative juices not just flowing but bubbling to the top with enthusiasm.

Check out her three books for writers. www.KellyLStone.com

Mahala

MAC August Winner

I apologize for the delay in getting the August winner posted. September has been an overwhelming month on many fronts. The August winner is Pamela Hill from Leesburg, Florida with her short story Translucent Wings.  Pamela has short stories, pulp fiction and poems published by Six Minute Magazine, Literary Juice, Ping Pong, An Art & Literary Journal of the Henry Miller Memorial Library, and Naturewriting, respectively.  Nailpolish Stories, A Tiny & Colorful Literary Journal, recently accepted her short, short story for publication in October.  She is currently working on a novella. Congratulations to Pamela, and we welcome her to Lyrical Pens. She has left us with an O. Henry ending if there ever was one. Enjoy.  Mahala

Translucent Wings

By

Pamela Hill

Gusts of wind flipped my umbrella inside out and pushed me toward the tower where my office was on the 18th floor. My secretary brought me a towel. “Grendel wants to see you.”

I wiped the rain from my things. “Let me dry off.”

She bit her lip, so I knew Grendel was yelling again. I tossed my keys on my desk and ran to the elevator, which carried me down to the first floor. Mr. Grendel sat behind his desk. “Our client’s name is misspelled on every document, Catherine. Incompetence is unacceptable.” When I turned to leave, he said, “another oversight like this …termination is imminent.”

Back in my office, my colleague, Daphne, sauntered in. “What happened downstairs?”

“Not much” I said and halfway smiled. Daphne’s demeanor betrayed a subterfuge of joy before she left.

My secretary rushed in. “Daphne did it. She accessed the documents through the network and made changes before I mailed them to the client.“ She bit her lip again. “I didn’t know. I’m so sorry.”

“How did you find out?”

“Her secretary saw her do it.”

While I raged, a little green Lacewing alit upon the wall. If a Lacewing is attacked, it emits a foul odor and loses the beauty of translucent wings. “Control yourself,” Lacewing implied. “If you do, Daphne will fry.”

She did.

Bobbie Ann Mason

You may or may not remember that Southern writers are my focus this year, and in that pursuit I have found writers new to me, including Bobbie Ann Mason. 

Mason, a novelist and literary critic also writes short stories and essays and so far, none have disappointed me. From Kentucky, she wrote about the working classes within her state, but just to shake things up a bit the attended graduate school at the University of Connecticut, earning her Ph.D. in literature. Her dissertation on Vladimir Nabokov's, Ada, was published as the novel, Nabokov's Garden. And, if that wasn't enough for this little-ole, dairy-farm girl, she's had her short stories published in The Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, and The Paris Review. Just for kicks, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship and a National Endowment of the Arts fellowship. And there is a long list of awards that you can check out on her website www.bobbieannmason.net.

Mason's work is not light reading. Weaving complex story threads along the lines of Flannery O'Connor and William Faulkner, Mason's books are thought provoking, challenging reads. In Country is a poignant look at the Vietnam War - the secret war so many Americans didn't want to talk about - through the eyes of a young girl on the verge of adulthood. Mason's scene settings are apropos to the time and place and brought back a lot of memories. Feather Crowns brings to life another of Mason's strong female characters. Christie lives in the backwoods and is shocked when she gives birth to the first recorded set of quintuplets in North America. Christie and the women who surround her range from her country kin to carnival caricatures, then circle through rich women who think they can buy her fame, and ultimately bring Christie full circle when the young mother stands up for what she wants not what everyone wants her to want. A powerful story of the people of the early 1900s.

I think I'll try the Nabokov book next.

Mahala